i8o LOCH CRERAN. 



jerking into view as we continue our inquiries, come the 

 minute imitations of the two-spot goby ; while that quaint 

 little crustacean, the Mysis, is in myriads in the brackish 

 water, and a proportion have strayed in here among the 

 sea-weed protected boulders. Suddenly, as we lift this 

 other stone, there is a gleam of purple and silver, and a 

 beautiful creature, covered with opalescent plates that 

 work across each other strangely as it progresses, crosses 

 our field of view. Gently ! gently ! or the plates will all 

 come off, and leave it nothing but a gelatinous worm. 

 You have shrunk from it, my friend, and so, because it 

 is an annelid or seaworm, you will lose the wondrous 

 beauty with which it is endowed. No doubt it too is a 

 factor in keeping down the over-swarming of the smaller 

 fishes. We have nothing on land, unless it is the cater- 

 pillars of the different moths, that can vie in beauty of 

 colouring and wonderful organisation with these various 

 marine annelids. They are almost all possessed likewise 

 of properties that produce phosphorescence in a very 

 high degree ; indeed, higher than any class of marine or 

 land creature with which we are acquainted, excepting 

 the glow-worm itself. 



Will the same pair of birds produce a nest of young 

 twice in a season ? This is a question we have frequently 

 asked ourselves respecting the common hedge-row birds, 

 and although satisfied that they might occasionally, 

 under favourable circumstances, we could never positively 

 assert that they did. Now we have an admirable oppor- 

 tunity of seeing this at Ledaig, where the poet's tame 

 redbreast produced a brood of nestlings early this season, 

 and is now busy with a new nest, which it will no doubt 

 fill in due season. The weather has been especially 

 favourable for nesting purposes, and we hope to find 



